


happy endings

by Anonymous



Category: Cow Chop, The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Disney Movies, Eventual Smut, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fluff and Angst, Inspired by Disney, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 10:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17262788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “Happy Endings,” Aleks said, reading the swirling, gold cursive aloud. “A collection of stories made for those who dare to believe in them.”Or: a fairy tale!AU involving James and Aleks being drawn into a mystifying book's pages and uncovering the only way to get back home is to finish the tale as it was written:with a happy ending.Updated terribly. Chapters varying from 7k to 8k per story.





	happy endings

 

**_happy endings_ **

_i. once upon a time,_

 

* * *

 

Under the mid-June sun of Los Angeles, James was _baking_ as he trekked up the empty street. Brett had texted him the address to the restaurant where they were to have a quick meeting over lunch that morning, which meant he had pulled up Google Maps to find the establishment, but he still found himself lost among the street.

His hair was gathered into its usual bun for the sweltering weather and he had parked his car two blocks away in a pay-per-hour parking garage. Even in his thin t-shirt and jeans, sweat gathered on his brow under the beaming sun.

Pausing his steps along the sidewalk, he stared down at his phone in frustration as the arrow continued guiding him toward his destination. Thankfully, the device rang and vibrated in his grip with Brett’s name appearing across the screen.

James answered the phone with a sigh, squinting to look at the street signs around him, “I’m hurrying as fast as I can. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

 _"You’re lost, aren’t you?_ ”

There was noise in the background James could only assume was the chattering of those in the restaurant.

James bit the inside of his cheek and turned in place. Maybe he took a wrong turn a street or two over.

“I’m not lost, necessarily. It’s my phone.”

Brett hummed in mock belief, “Well, it seems both you and Aleks are having the same _dilemma_ because he’s not here yet either.”

James let out a huff of a laugh. If he was tardy, at least he wouldn’t be the only one scolded and, along with him, Aleks would take the blame for keeping everyone waiting. With how much Aleks falsely boasted about _knowing_ the streets of L.A., James figured he deserved to get lost. Maybe his phone might even decide to fucking _work properly_ and he’ll beat the younger to reaching the restaurant.

Brett asked where exactly James had gotten lost, continuing telling him simple step-by-step directions after James relayed the street names to him. After repeating the instructions to himself and reassuring Brett of his appearance in five minutes, he realized he had somehow pasted the address incorrectly into the search bar.

Tucking his phone into his back pocket, he told himself no one needed to know the embarrassing detail.

After walking another block and making a two turns onto different streets, he sighed in relief at the sight of the restaurant’s sign. The also street held other eating places and locally owned shops. Awnings covered him from the sun, blessedly, and his stomach grumbled from his lack of breakfast and the smell of food roaming in the air.

Determined to sate his stomach, he walked his final block of sidewalk to reach the restaurant. He pulled out his phone to text Brett in their group chat he was nearing the establishment, but his footing stuttered as something to his left caught his attention.

There, in the same glass windows that lined all the other shops on the street, James couldn’t tear his eyes away from one store’s display.

A _book_ store, from the looks of the stacks of novels in the display window and bookshelves further back into the store, had made him pause. There was something quaint and quiet about the interior from what he could see beyond the windows. Dark wooden bookshelves, colorful paperbacks and hardcovers placed on tables neatly on similar wooden tables, and warm lighting decorated the space.

 _Weird_ , James thought as he glanced at the stores surrounding it,  _for a bookstore to put up shop on such a modern street filled with organic juice cafes and yoga studios_.

“James?”

Blinking out of his daze and thoughts, James turned to see no other than Aleks jogging up to him. He was wearing an outfit similar to James’ own, a t-shirt and lightweight athletic pants. He had a baseball caps turned backwards on his head, toughs of freshly dyed blond hair peeking from the empty space.

Aleks caught his breath, adjusting his cap and glancing at the bookstore in front of them before turning to James, “Hey, my phone died all of a sudden on the drive here and I left my charger at the office. What’s your excuse?”

James gestured to his phone before pocketing it, “Yeah, Google Maps fucked me over and gave me the wrong directions to the address Brett gave me.”

He paused and watched as Aleks used the neckline of his shirt to wipe sweat off his forehead, “Next time, we’re all carpooling.”

Aleks let out a laugh that James interpreted as an agreement before something seemed to pull his eyes to the bookstore’s display windows. James did the same, frowning as Aleks stepped forward to go inside. He reached out an arm to pull him back and towards the restaurant down the street, but grabbed nothing but air as Aleks entered the store. Exhaling through his nose, James felt as if he was on autopilot as he followed him inside.

An old bell _clinked_ above their heads, but no attendant came to greet them nor did anyone stand behind the tall register counter.

His stomach suddenly ignored or deemed unimportant, James took in the bookstore’s space. Aleks moved ahead, picking up a book on one of the nearest tables as James inspected the high shelves lining the walls and wooden floors. Everything in the large room seemed to be made of a dark, expensive wood other than the assortment of book covers.

James sniffed, catching the odd mix of fresh book pages, old oak furniture, and _dust_ . He found himself questioning how long the store had been here with the smell. The store couldn’t have been _that_ old with the shining variety of other stores surrounding it. Could it?

James did a double take near the spot Aleks had just been standing. Glancing around the room, James found no sign of him. With slight irritation, James walked further into the store where floor to ceiling bookshelves gathered in rows. Within a few seconds of not meeting the end of his current bookshelf row, James paused.

 _'How big is this fucking bookstore?'_  He thought in frustration.

“Aleks?” He called out, wincing at the contrast of his loud voice echoed through the silence of the store. “Come on, we need to get to the meeting. They probably started lunch without us. I'm starving.”

When he received no response from him, he grumbled to himself before continuing on down the bookshelf aisle. Aleks must have heard him and chosen to ignore him out of spite.

Suddenly, a break in the bookshelf appeared, opening to another pathway. He eyed it with suspicion, following the ceiling to find the wall of the store, but couldn’t pinpoint where it began and ended because of the dim lighting near the walls.

Clenching his fists and genuinely growing exasperated at this ordeal, he turned onto the pathway and found himself in another row of towering bookshelves.

“I must be walking in circles.” He said to himself before reaching _another_ break of books opening to _another_ new pathway a minute later, “There’s no way this store is this massive.”

Though he didn’t notice, the bookshelves grew more narrow as minutes went by. Book covers grew more torn and worn with stains and dust gathering on them. Whoever organized the shelves scattered the book placement with horizontal pilings of books appearing and some books open or face down as if someone had paused reading them to do another task.

The warm lighting from the store’s front grew softer and _softer_ as he continued down the never ending rows of bookshelves.

Something sour curled in James’ middle as he finally realized his environment had changed from a clean, vintage bookstore to something else entirely. It looked as if no one had been back here in years. Running a finger along one of the shelves, a clean line of wood was left in its wake as his fingertip was covered in grime. He made a face of disgust and wiped his hand against a leg of his jeans.

This wasn’t right, something went _wrong_ somewhere as he fucking descended these rows of bookshelves. He could barely extend a single arm without hitting a bookshelf.

“Aleks?” He raised his voice, twisting around to project the sound in all directions.

Taking out his phone in desperation to call Aleks, he gawked at the ‘ _No Service_ ’ icon in the screen's corner. Even more bizarre was the time in the screen's center, the numbers remaining the same digits as they were when the pair entered the store: _12:07 PM_.

He swore, tucking his phone back into his pocket and staring at the surrounding shelves. The air in this section of the store was colder than he ever thought possible for even air conditioning in June in Los Angeles. Rubbing his bare arms, he continued on cautiously further into the store.

Just as he was about to call out for Aleks again, there was a shout that came from far beyond the shelves.

“ _James?_ ”

It was Aleks, he was sure, and he pivoted in the voice's direction, pace quickening as he squeezed between the shelves.

“Stay where you are, Aleks.” He said breathlessly, coming to a stop as he reached a dead end that opened to another bookshelf aisle to his left.

He heard the thudding of footsteps and felt the movement under the soles of his shoes from the aisle, turning himself towards the stimulus.

He suddenly collided with a solid form, a smile breaking out onto his face as he felt Aleks’ arms patting around him. It was surreal, getting worked up over getting _lost_ in a bookstore, but James wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

Aleks was breathing heavily as if out of exertion as he pulled away, a look of reassurance to James passing over his features as he glanced around at the bookshelves.

James broke the silence, “Where the fuck are we? Last time I checked, we haven’t been in this store more than a minute, but it feels like at least an hour or so has gone by. I’ve been walking through this _maze_ trying to find you.”

Aleks opened his mouth, closing it as he pulled out his own phone to check the time, “Maybe the service in here is just bad from all the shelves?”

James gave him an expression that had him rolling his eyes. “Look, I’m just trying to rationalize this shit.”

Pulling off his cap and running a hand through his hair, Aleks continued as he stared up at the disorganized bookshelves, “All I know is someone called me back here and that he sounded older. I thought you were behind me when I started walking.”

James ran a hand over his face, “I called your name, but you didn’t answer.”

Aleks gave him an incredulous look and crossed his arms, “Are you fucking kidding me? I called out for you too, but you never replied. I thought you had left the store.”

That made James frown in confusion. There was no way, in this single room of a shop, that they couldn’t have heard each other. The bookshelves were definitely not thick enough to block out sound, much less the sound of them _yelling_ out each other's names.

“We can just retrace our steps. There has to be more than one way out since we both came in through different rows.”

James nodded at the idea, turning on his heel to return from the direction of which he came, but found his breath caught in his throat at the sight behind him.

A _wall_. . . of the same wood coloring as the bookshelves and the walls they had seen when they first entered the store, adorned with a flickering gas lamp, stood in the space from which James had come from.

There was a _solid wall_ where James had just walked through.

James rushed over to the wall, hands hovering over the hard surface in disbelief. How had they not noticed a wall forming behind them? Pounding a fist into the wood, he cursed loudly and turned to find Aleks’ face full of a foreign look of dread.

“Where the hell are we?” James hissed, his frustration coming full force as it intertwined with a new sense of fear.

Both men turned to their right as the sound of wood scraping against wood perked their ears.

Blood rushed from their faces as they watched a portion of a bookshelf move on its own accord, shifting backwards and into an open space of an aisle as if it were a missing puzzle piece. That explained the sudden openings they both came across in walking through the maze. The bookshelves were _moving_ _on their own_ , creating new paths and openings like some sort of sentient being.

James opened his mouth to swear, but Aleks held a hand up as if to silence the other man, “Wait, look.”

There, between the new path the self-moving shelf had made, was a paint chipping, black door. Beside it sat a green leather chair and a small side table with a gold, gas lamp similar to the one on the wall blocking James’ previous path.

James and Aleks both shared a glance before nodding and approaching the door with caution.

The door was enormous, at least a few feet taller than their heads, and upon closer inspection, had traces of swirling, golden accents lining the trim.

James’ hand itched in apprehension as he reached for the brass handle of the door. Somewhere deep in his mind, there was a battle between a voice urging him to open the door and discover what’s on the other side and a voice yelling to turn back and forget what they’ve seen. Looking over to Aleks, he saw in his widened eyes the same curiosity.

James took a breath, gripped the handle and gave the heavy door a slight push. . .

To reveal a dimly lit and wooden-walled room, bare save for a high, round table with a single thick book propped atop it.

Aleks entered first, steps hesitant as he approached the book. As James followed, he made sure the door behind them stayed ajar by propping it open with the side table just outside. His eyes adjusted to the room’s dim lighting, the only brightness being the from one of the reappearing gas lamps above the table.

When James finally stood beside Aleks in front of the table, close enough to read the title of the book, he tilted his head. The book cover was encased in worn, brown leather. A golden clasp connected the two sides of the cover together. As Aleks tilted his head, he found no proper lock to inhibit those from opening it.

“ _Happy Endings_ ,” Aleks said, reading the swirling gold cursive aloud. “ _A collection of stories made for those who dare to believe in them._ ”

“Why is there a description, but no author? Who wrote it?”

Aleks shrugged and reached out to inspect the book’s weathered cover, “Who knows? Maybe it’s more than one author.”

"Aleks, _hold on_. We don't know-"

As Aleks’ fingers brushed against the leather, the clasp snapped open and had both men yelling out in alarm with a step back. With a hand over his thrumming heart, James watched as the book shook against the table before its beige pages burst open and flipped rapidly.

“What the _actual fuck_ -”

The pages stopped their turning, stilling on a page that looked to be the beginning of a chapter or story with its bold text and colorful illustration to the side. Aleks leaned close enough to read the words on the page, but both men kept their distance with arms drawn out to push each other back if need be.

Aleks scanned over the illustrations scattering the page, but one image in particular of a single  _glass shoe_ on a pliant pillow caught his attention and his eyes moved to the story's title.

Aleks strode forward slightly, causing James at his side to take another step along with him. "It's _Cinderella_. That's the story the book stopped on."

James’ face drained of its color when Aleks continued on to read the story’s introduction.

_" **Once upon a time** , _

 

_There was a boy called **James**. _

 

_And he saw the world not always as it **was** , _

 

_But as perhaps as it **could be** , _

 

_With just a little bit of **magic**." _

Aleks had the briefest moment to turn to James, to see his face of distress at the sound of his own specific name being in such an ancient book, before a blinding light took over them. Shouting out each other’s names in desperation and surprise, James only brushed against Aleks’ hand before he felt himself be drawn into the book’s pages like gravity itself.

In a sudden moment, without anyone's acknowledgement, the dangling sign from the glass windows displaying a welcoming word of _OPEN_ flipped to a _CLOSED_ without the flick of a hand or sway of breeze.

After their alarmed cries and the sound of the book slamming shut ceased, there was a deafening sound of silence in the room.

Throughout the bookstore, the frantic shifting of bookshelves was the only sound.

That was, until a considering, wrinkled face of the shopkeeper appeared and _tapped_ easily with his cane through the bookshelves. He then tottered past the black door and pat the green chair affectionately before stepping into the quiet room. Walking up to the table, he smiled at the sight of the last traces of the book’s shining pages as if it was an old companion he had not seen for many years.

“It is time.”


End file.
